Spotlight & Giveaway: Rocky Mountain Rivals by Joanne Rock

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Joanne Rock to HJ!

Hi Joanne and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Rocky Mountain Rivals!

 
Hello! So excited to be back with a new series this month!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

This is an enemies to lovers story set in the fictional town of Catamount, Colorado. The series begins when three estranged sisters inherit their grandmother’s ranch. Book 1, Rocky Mountain Rivals, is Fleur Barclay’s story. She’s the youngest sister, but the first to return to Colorado to get the place ready for sale. Except once she arrives and reconnects with the past, she’s not so sure she wants to sell after all. Complicating matters is her neighbor and enemy, Drake Alexander, who has his own reasons for wanting to buy her ranch. She doesn’t appreciate the attraction between them, but she finds it tough to resist even if he is the brother of her ex and totally off-limits.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

“Miss Colorado Silver Spurs and I are well-acquainted. ”
**
As efforts to smooth things over with her went, it wasn’t half-bad.
It’d been almost civil. Or as civil as things had ever been between him and Fleur.
**
Swinging up behind her, he wrapped an arm around her waist, remembering belatedly about the way her short T-shirt didn’t quite meet the top of her cutoffs. His forearm pressed into smooth, bare skin, her belly sucking in on a gasp at the contact.
Same, sweetheart. Same.

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• Former pageant queen Fleur helped pay for college with scholarship money earned from rodeo pageants. She has some fun memories of her life from that time.
• The heroine reconnects with recipes of her pasts when she cooks in her grandmother’s kitchen. I loved writing about the food in this one!
• There are adorable long-eared Nubian goats with Arthurian inspired nicknames.

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

The attraction goes way back even if they have hidden it beneath their enmity! Drake has long been attracted to Fleur for her kind heart–she’s a warrior in her family by being the one most willing to compromise.

Fleur is drawn to Drake for his sense of honor. She admires that he wants to care for his family, even if it isn’t always obvious to his siblings.

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

This scene was one that made the heat rise!

Just one taste.
Drake told himself that was all he needed. Okay, he ached for more than that. But a single taste was all he’d allow himself of this woman who tempted him more than any other.
One kiss, and he’d have the answer to questions that had haunted the corners of his mind for longer than he cared to think about. What if he hadn’t brought Colin with him to that final rodeo? What if Colin hadn’t driven Fleur back to Catamount after she’d failed to capture the Miss Colorado Rodeo title that would have given her the rest of the scholarship money she’d needed for college?
Drake had seen Fleur with different eyes that summer. She’d been twenty years old. No longer a kid he needed to protect. Some of her defensive armor had worn off by then, perhaps because she’d been developing a new confidence in herself and her ability to attend culinary school without her family’s help. He’d recognized then that he wanted her, but he hadn’t acted on it, knowing she had big dreams that didn’t include Catamount or him.
His brother had acted, though. And the next time he’d seen Fleur had been weeks later when he’d discovered them engaged. His reaction had been out of bounds. Not just because he knew it was a bad idea for both of them.
But because he’d wanted her, too.
He’d ignored that hunger for so long, reminding himself of every fault he’d ever found with her, that his appetite had only grown more urgent. Unavoidable. Undeniable.
Just one taste.
Fleur’s eyelashes fluttered, her breath huffing damp and warm along his mouth as she considered his words. Her cheeks were flush with desire, with promise.
“I think I’d regret it, too,” she said finally, dragging her gray eyes up to his. “If we didn’t find out—”
Her tongue darted out to swipe along the upper lip. The glistening moisture proved to be his kryptonite.
His restraint shredded until he held on by a thread. Hunger to taste her had him salivating. His grip tightened on her knee by a fraction, squeezing gently. The red knit dress she wore skimmed her luscious curves the way he wanted to.
“Find out what, Fleur?” he prompted, body throbbing with need. “Tell me.”
The corner of her lips curled up on one side. “What it would be like if we kissed instead of argued.”
Yes. Relief that she wanted him twined with a new imperative to kiss her in a way she’d never forget. Fleur’s hands moved to his shoulders, nails digging into the fabric of his T-shirt to grasp the muscle.
Testosterone gripped Drake below the belt.
Still, he stroked one hand up her neck, feeling the delicate warmth of her pulse beat beneath his fingertips. He would not rush this. He wanted to savor the moment, savor her. Then he cradled her jaw, angling her the way he wanted before his mouth descended on hers.

Readers should read this book….

If they love the enemies to lovers trope! Fans of western sagas or family inheritance stories will enjoy it too. Personally, I love the “coming home” elements of it, where the heroine rediscovers some of the pieces of herself she left behind. I always like stories like that– re-seeing what was in front of us all along.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

Right now, I’m writing a 4-book series set in western Montana called Kingsland Ranch. The first book will be out at the end of January 2023 and the releases will be spaced out throughout 2023. That too, is an inheritance drama, but in that one, a manipulative patriarch cuts two of his sons from his will, creating a lot of drama for his legal heirs.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: I’m giving away the complete “Brooklyn Nights” series including Nine-Month Temptation, Ways to Tempt the Boss and The Stakes of Faking It. Open INTL.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: All this week, I’m in Montana, exploring places for my upcoming western series! Today, I’m in Glacier National Park. Have you visited any of the National Parks before? Do you have a favorite or one you’d really like to see?

 
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Excerpt from Rocky Mountain Rivals:

His gaze strayed to her calves where her legs swung off the tailgate. When he caught himself, he whipped his attention back to her face, cursing the wayward chemistry. “I wanted to talk to you tonight so that you’d know my offer to buy Crooked Elm is both sincere and reflective of fair market value.”
Her lips flattened into a frown. “It’s not even on the market yet, and I haven’t had time to research comparable properties.”
“I assure you, I have researched it—”
She swung on him with a huff of indignation. “You can’t believe I’d take your word for what’s an appropriate figure given our relationship.”
Something in her tone got under his skin.
“We don’t have a relationship.” He let the words linger a moment, giving them weight. “But I tried to be a good neighbor to Antonia, and I’d like to think she appreciated my efforts.”
“Then why didn’t you convince her to sell if you were on such great terms?” Her raised voice told Drake how far off track the conversation had gotten.
Hadn’t he been trying to smooth things over with her? Wrestling down his annoyance, he explained, “I believe she would have sold to me if she hadn’t been committed to giving her granddaughters the option of keeping the place if they chose. But from what I can see, it doesn’t look like any of you want to make a life here.”
“How would you know what I want?” She tipped her head up to look at the stars. “You don’t understand the first thing about me.”
“You haven’t set foot in Catamount for five years. Not even for Antonia. Are you trying to tell me you suddenly want to be my neighbor?”
“I haven’t been here because of you,” she shot back, sliding off the truck bed and landing on her feet. “You helped ruin my relationship with Colin and tried to turn the town against me with your attitude. Especially when I needed his support. Do you have any idea how much I dreaded returning to this town with you in it?”
Seeing her this agitated—this hurt and furious—raked over his conscience for a moment. She hadn’t let him glimpse those emotions five years ago. He’d been surprised, in fact, that she’d backed down about her engagement to his brother. He’d expected a battle from her, or at least some passionate defense of her love for his brother when Drake had lobbied for her to rethink marriage. Instead, she’d acquiesced.
Now, he latched onto her words. “What do you mean that you needed his support?” He’d thought she needed Colin’s money. “Financially?”
An angry sound erupted from her throat before she pivoted on her heel and marched toward the driver’s side of her car.
“Fleur?” He hopped off the tailgate to follow her, wondering what he’d missed. “Explain it to me. If you didn’t mean money, what did you need from Colin?”
She spun around so fast the hem of her dress whipped at his legs and he had to stop short not to run into her.
“You know what, Drake? I don’t owe you any explanations. I didn’t then, and I don’t now.” She was so close he caught a hint of her perfume, vanilla and nutty. Her breath brushed his cheek. “For that matter, you’re the last man on earth I’d take a cent from, so I won’t be selling Crooked Elm to you.”
Her warmth and scent so close to him distracted him from understanding her words for a fraction of a second. So by the time he’d processed the blow she’d just dealt, she was already sliding into the driver’s seat.
“Fleur, wait.” He’d screwed this up. Badly. And with the land at stake, he couldn’t afford to make things personal with Fleur. “Don’t make a decision now, while you’re upset.”
“Good night, Drake.” She reached for the car door to pull it closed, then hesitated, glancing up at him. “And I’m not going to be the one to tell Emma you blew her chances of having me cater her wedding. That’s on you for always assuming the worst of me. But then you don’t have a great track record when it comes to talking to your siblings.”
He would have argued, but since she shut the door, he thought it better to get his feet out of the way of her tires as she put the vehicle into reverse.
How could he lose the land he needed and mess up his sister’s wedding plans at the same time? Yet he found it tough to ruminate on those things when Fleur’s words still echoed in his mind about needing Colin’s support. Had there been more to his brother’s engagement than he’d known at the time?
Fleur’s engine revved as she pulled onto the county road, and he realized he felt uneasy about how upset she’d been. Her anger had seemed genuine enough, making him question everything he’d thought he’d known about her in the past. All he’d known was that his brother went from an easygoing fellow when he started dating Fleur, to a tense, sadder man when they got engaged. He’d refused to talk about his relationship with Fleur, and once they’d broken up, Colin had hightailed it out of town. They’d barely spoken since.
He slammed the tailgate closed on his truck, listening to the barn owl still complaining overhead. Maybe Fleur was just a good actress, and her outrage had been for show. But if it wasn’t—if Drake had missed something about his brother’s rush to wed—then he needed to figure out what had happened. And since Fleur made it clear she wouldn’t be giving him any explanations, that meant he’d need to give his brother a call.
Drumming his fingers on the cool metal of the truck fender, Drake suspected he should feel remorse at the possibility of screwing up Colin’s love life five years ago. But with the memory of Fleur’s fragrance stirring his senses, he couldn’t help thinking it was still just as well that he’d come between them. Because what kind of special torment would it have been to feel like this about his brother’s wife?

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

An off-limits kiss on the ranch turns enemies to lovers in the launch of this new Western series, Return to Catamount, from USA TODAY bestselling author Joanne Rock!

The man responsible for ruining her life…just made her an offer she can’t refuse.

As heartless and irresistibly attractive as ever, bull-riding champion Drake Alexander says he has his reasons for wanting control of Fleur Barclay’s family ranch. And Fleur is torn by her warring feelings for him—Drake is her ex’s brother and totally off-limits. Yet she gives in to his powers of persuasion…and their sizzling chemistry. But secrets and a devastating betrayal could turn these lovers back into bitter enemies in a heartbeat…
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Meet the Author:

USA Today bestselling author Joanne Rock turned a passion for writing into a career when imaginary characters kept her awake at night, demanding she tell their stories. The author of over one hundred romances in a variety of sub-genres, she enjoys small-town family sagas as much as high-drama glitz and glamour. Joanne has won numerous awards for her stories including the Romantic Times WISH Award, the Snow Globe, and multiple Cataromance Reviewer’s Choice Awards. Her work has been reprinted in twenty-six countries and translated into twenty languages. After receiving her Master’s degree in Literature from the University of Louisville, Joanne went on to teach writing, film, and fiction at colleges in KY, UT and NY. She enjoys sharing her passion for the arts at creative writing workshops, career fairs and with aspiring writers she meets online.
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